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Valuable Lessons We Can Learn from the Creator of the London Tube Map
This brilliant document is a free masterclass on communication and creativity
The humble London Tube map (also known as the London Underground map) is one of the most iconic and recognizable images in the world. But this map does more than help millions of passengers on their daily travels. By understanding its origins and evolution, we can all become vastly better creators and communicators.
Harry Beck, an electrical draughtsman, designed the first iteration of the Tube map in 1931. An electrical draughtsman is a person who makes technical drawings to communicate ideas in industry and engineering.
Beck had been laid off from the London Underground in the late 1920s due to budget cuts. With time on his hands and an interest in London’s transport system, he set about to “tidy up” the Tube map.
And “tidying up” it desperately needed. As you can see below, the Tube map that was available at the time was a mess. The station names were difficult to read, as were the awkwardly twisting underground lines.
A subsequent version was even more disastrous. The centrally located stations were practically on top of one another, and there were tons of wasted space as the lines moved further away from central London.
In fairness to the original mapmakers, their primary motivation was geographic accuracy. Consequently, they took the rail lines and simply overlaid them on top of a regular city map.
Lucky for Londoners, Beck had a different vision. In a radical move, he evened out the spaces between stations and experimented with underground lines that ran horizontal, vertical and at 45-degree angles. In doing so, he illustrated an important lesson in communication.
Communication is about conveying information. To convey information effectively, you must prioritize…
